If 189 fishermen drowned in a storm today it would be called a tragedy of
unparalleled proportions. Yet the story of the east coast fishing disaster of
1881, when exactly that number of men were killed in a single afternoon is
all but unknown to history. The vast majority came from Eyemouth on the
Berwickshire coast, where ninety widows and almost three hundred children
were left behind in penury.

The trauma of the event, and the despair that it caused is more than worth
the telling. But beyond the grim toll of the sea lies an even more remarkable
story. Using a mass of previously untouched sources Peter Aitchison uncovers
the link between Britain's worst fishing disaster and the liability of the
Eyemouth fishermen - alone in Scotland - to pay a tenth of their earnings to
the Church of Scotland. While other, less advantaged, ports won massive
grants to improve their facilities, the Berwickshire men were distracted in
a twenty year battle with the Kirk and the State. The fishermen won, but the
victory was pyhrric. But for the "tithe" dispute Eyemouth harbour could have
been made safe and the carnage of 14 1881 would have been much less.
It might never have happened at all.

This book is a sweeping canvas of tragedy and romance, of courage and
defiance, of hope and of death. It traces a line from the Reformation,
through the manic era of witch burnings on the beach, of men forced to fight
for King, Covenant and Pretender and a community that grew rich from the
colourful exploits of eighteenth century smuggling. Above all it is a story
of a town that came to depend on the precarious bounty of the ocean and of a
people increasingly at war with both the civil and religious establishments.
The fishermen fought their case in the courts and on the streets. They took
their cause to the wider public in printed tracts and pamphlets and some men
were jailed for their principles.

Children of the Sea has already been widely praised. John Home-Robertson
MSP, who's forebears as lairds of the town battled with Peter Aitchison's
ancestors, has written the foreword and says "This is a major landmark in
Scottish social history, and more than that it is an excellent read". The
former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right
Reverend John Miller says "Here is an event which must not be forgotten and
this book tells the story very well. ..By its political power the Church
contributed to the Disaster which well- nigh annihilated Eyemouth". The
renowned Scottish artist John Bellany, who draws much of his inspiration from
fishing has called Children of the Sea "One of the most enthralling Scottish
books I have ever read".

This is no arid litany of dates, facts and statistics. It is the true story
of a people who lived through some of the darkest periods in Scottish history
and who survived a tragedy that would be hard to comprehend today.

Peter Aitchison was born and brought up in Eyemouth. He works as a news
producer with the BBC in Glasgow, is former editor of Radio Scotland's Good
Morning Scotland and BBC TV's Newsnight Scotland. He is married with three
young children.